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Kay, R., Lauriclla, S. (2011). Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of Using Laptop Computers in Higher Education Classrooms: A Formative Analysis. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology. 37:1

a. Laptops and mobile devices are ubiquitous in todays classrooms as students are digital natives. Because of decreasing prices of technology over the past few decades, an overwhelming majority of the university students surveyed own a laptop (87%). Because of this quick onset of technological adoption, culture has lagged, in terms of re-defining the social institutions that such mobile and computer technologies affect. According to this analysis, students feel that the use of a laptop helps in aiding studies, is useful for gathering course and supplementary materials and engaging in peer collaboration. Several challenges have been noted: communication based challenges, relating to social media, email and messaging services; and entertainment based challenges, relating to media consumption. These challenges serve as potential sources of distraction for the student using the technology and others. In their findings, 16% of students reported being distracted by pornography during class, on their own or others' computer screens, which ranked higher than computer games, at 1%. The authors conclude that the benefits of laptop use in class outweigh the challenges 2:1. Possibly, if the functionality of student laptops are integrated into course curriculum further, students can benefit from further peer collaboration, increased academic benefit and decreased distractions.

América Latina avanza con paso firme hacia el Open Access pero todavía quedan desafíos importantes para que esta corriente se consolide. Los gobiernos ya parecen convencidos de que el acceso abierto es el futuro, y así lo demuestran las leyes de acceso abierto que se han aprobado en y .

If Google Translate gets it right, the article suggests 7 ideas to promote open acces in Latin America: - Promote a culture of open access among the young - Invite the new generation of researchers to build a new set of rules governing scholarly communication.- - Manage national access strategies - Promote awareness of the potential of open access - Provide training to scientists regarding intellectual property - Improve and standardize the taxonomy of documents to increase their visibility - Help Open Access journals to gain prestige These will apply to all other regions of the world as well. It shoul be noted that much of it can be done by the indivdual researcher, while some will best be untertaken by universities or libraries or even the state.

This year, the fifth annual Publishers for Development (PfD) conference explored current developments in scholarly communication including their impact on publishers, researchers and information professionals in the global South. The rapid growth in open access, the potential for social media to increase communication of research and also new measures for the way research is used were all topics viewed from a Southern perspective. The one-day conference was held in London on 15 October and titled 'Forward Thinking: Developing a global research cycle which fully engages South and North'. It brought together publishers from 16 publishing houses, librarians and researchers from universities in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Also present were representatives of organisations involved in research access, production and use such as the World Bank, African Journals Online, Research4Life, Development Research Uptake in Sub-Saharan Africa (DRUSSA), Talloires Network and Partnerships in Health Information.

Interesting open text book created by the Free Technology Academy that outlines the history, culture, and use of free software. "Free Software" is ambiguous in English and not the commonly used terminology. However, in Spanish and French it is possible to make a distinction between "Libre software" and "gratis" software. The authors argue that the term "open source" is too technical focused, while "libre software" better focuses on the rights of the users and community. Interesting and worth skimming for reference. Available in English, Spanish, Catalan, and Italian. Authors: Jesús M. González-Barahona, Joaquín Seoane Pascual, Gregorio Robles Coordinators: Jordi Mas Hernández, David Megías Jiménez Licenses: GNU Free Documentation License, Creative Commons Attribute ShareAlike License Information: 291 Pages; 3.2Mb Free software is increasing its presence in mainstream media and in debates among IT professionals, but it is still unknown for many people.

Introducción al software libre, en Español: http://ocw.uoc.edu/informatica-tecnologia-y-multimedia/introduccion-al-software-libre/materiales/view?set_language=es

Muy buenos aportes @koobreader

Publishing has transited from traditional to Electronic format making information resources available to users without much subscription. E-publishing is engendered by the introduction of information and communication technology (ICT), this development has brought about increase in the number of scholarly communication in circulation. The awareness and rate of e-publishing differs among faculties, it based on this that this study was carried out to survey the situation of e-publishing and open access of librarians in three federal universities in Southern Nigeria, five research questions were formulated to guide the study. The methodology adopted is descriptive survey, questionnaire was given to a total population of 64 librarians consisting of librarians from the institutions understudy, the data collected from the study shows that though librarians are aware of e-publishing but they have not being publishing as should have been expected in University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) out of the 95% that aware of electronic publishing only 30% have published there articles electronically, in University of Lagos (UNILAG) 100% indicated that they have published electronically while in University of Benin (UNIBEN) 45.4% percent indicated yes while 54.5% said they have not published their articles electronically. On availability of open access it was discovered that they have access as a total of 84% from UNN responded Yes, UNILAG 100% said Yes while in UNIBEN 90.9%. The following problems based on their scoring militating against e-publishing and open access in Nigeria. Inadequate power supply; inadequate computer terminals; inadequate funding for subscription payment.

Executive education courses are most schools' main sources of income. They are often customized and sold to private corporations, covering business trends such as big data and leadership. Moocs are seen by many in the education sector as a direct threat to MBA and master's programs, offering similar content developed by tenure or tenure-track professors, but free of charge.

Remember when the for profit university rose to a new prominence a decade or so ago, and everyone you knew flocked to the University of Phoenix to finish their degree and get a fabulous new job? I hope the MOOC doesn't turn into that. The hope was that it would enable those isolated by distance and means would elevate themselves thru their use. Sadly, according to findings by Forbes, it's mostly white, educated, employed American males taking them. I wonder which carries more weight with hiring managers--the MOOC-taker, or the traditional paying student?

This article gives opinion that university is playing an important role that will not be replaced by the open educational opinion, which I also agreed. Instead of considering OER as a threat to university, the article argues that "OER can help institutions provide higher education to rapidly increasing numbers of students and lifelong learners".

Thank you for sharing the article Ming Tang. I think you make a great point about OER and the university working together as opposed to a "war of the roses" type scenario where a married couple refuses to work together. As the article mentioned the university is the one that gives the diploma and is the one that deals with accreditation inspections, etc. OER to me would make a nice complement on the arms of any university. Another good article along the same lines can be found at http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/impact-globalization-and-future-university.

Thank you Melduncan2!

Libraries are under threat from large commercial aggregators who provide services which are in many cases challenging the role of libraries. Information technology is also, however, an enabler for valuable collaboration between libraries to provide their own information-rich resources. Libraries can also collaborate in providing services, software and communities. Software communities supporting libraries (including open source) Technology projects for libraries featuring multi-institution collaboration The role of the library in increasing service reach through institutional collaboration (eg multi-institution MOOCS) Use of aggregation with distributed services to form rich data services

Open development is about making information and data freely available and searchable, encouraging feedback, information-sharing, and accountability. We've opened our data, knowledge and research to foster innovation and increase transparency in development, aid flows, and finances. Learn more here.

"This Report reflects the Administration's continued resolve to encourage and maintain adequate and effective IPR protection and enforcement worldwide." The report focuses on trade, copyright infringements, and the need to protect the products of creativity. The report discusses the subject globally. It is an extensive report that highlights the increased awareness of copyright protections and cooperation among different countries to legislate against infringements. Very helpful to see the scope of intellectual property rights concerns.

By: Matthew LeBar Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are often described as the future of education - or at least a significant part of it. But there may be a significant problem with them: a very small proportion of students who start them actually finish. This poses a serious threat to their legitimacy.

This brings up the question of what it means to complete something? And why is it so important to us? And why 'productivity', a thing somebody defined ages ago, is so important to our humanity? .. or is it anymore?

Because I am taking a MOOC course but also on campus at University, I receive credits and grades where this is definitely one of the motivations for me to contribute. Although I agree that completion of the course is not essential to attain knowledge, what about our motivations to learn? And what about our incentives? Not saying MOOCs are not interesting nor helpful, I like MOOCs, but I think people like recognition too. I think to just receive the "statement of accomplishment" is not enough to prove efforts made within the course. However MOOCs are not as well developed at this stage, there definitely will be adjustments in the near future.

"Social networking sites (e.g. Facebook), microblogging services (e.g. Twitter), and content sharing sites (e.g. YouTube and Flickr) have introduced the opportunity for wide scale, online social participation. Visibility of national and international priorities such as public health, political unrest, disaster relief, and climate change has increased, yet we know little about the benefits and possible costs of engaging in social activism via social media. "

This article reminds me to the activism of a Spanish councellor to promote activism through social net against the independence of Cataluña in Spain: http://www.elmundo.es/cronica/2014/10/12/54390135ca474179608b4571.html

Tens of thousands of people in Hungary have taken part in a peaceful march against the government's plans to tax the internet - the second demonstration in three days.

"People giving a foreign 'face' to a cause are standing between us. Media who pretend to write stories about groups whose voices are never heard but write almost universally through the lens of western men instead, are ensuring that all interpretations and solutions come from the same small segment of society. Wars are told from the point of view of arms dealers and politicians, disasters are interpreted by NGO's, most issues are never covered at all. Official channels decide what will or will not be revealed and media are rewarded for their obedience by access to more official information. New media in its current form has made this worse instead of better. Journalists write about those powerful in social media to have their stories amplified by the same people. The news - celebrity symbiosis has only escalated as writers vie for page views. We are at risk of having increasingly narrow news coverage as platforms like Twitter move to increase amplification of already powerful accounts and hide the less powerful opinions from view."

Schlitz M, Vieten C, Miller E. Journal of Consciousness Studies. 2010 July-Aug;17(7-8):18-36. "In this paper, we examine how increasing understanding and explicit awareness of social consciousness can develop through transformations in worldview." In order to develop a participatory culture which allows for participation by people from different cultural, educational and political backgrounds to the dominant Western culture in the digital domain, it is argued that Worldview Literacy needs to be cultivated, and tolerance learned for different worldviews. This would facilitate participation by all, and prevent the silencing and exclusion from agency of those from different backgrounds.